The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

"Good evening, Master Stefan," Lauren answered. She was seated on the sofa, though much like with Zeke, she seemed rather uncomfortable given its size and proportions which were not meant for a lizardman's derriere.

"What brings you here?" I asked. I hadn't seen her in a long time - not since that meeting all the way back before the siege, come to think of it. We had been assigned to different sections of the wall and afterwards there really was little that would bring us together. "Uh, first, can I get you something to eat? Or drink?"

"N-No," she said. "I came just to see how you were doing…"

"Right…" I said.

I didn't buy that as the actual reason as to why she was here for a minute, but what could I do? Yell 'Liar!' at her face?

We tried to make some small talk, but that was a bit difficult given that about two minutes in I realized just how little I knew about her.

She had been my employer for almost a year, but during that time we had had almost no contact. I always talked about things through Mark, a middleman, and after I had 'resigned' I supposed that we could talk about our shared experience while fighting during the siege… but that wasn't exactly pleasant to relive or reminisce about.

"Ah, coming to the main topic at hand," she finally said after what felt like way too long. "I… I realize upon reflecting right now that it wasn't the correct decision for me to have pressured you into leaving. I'm quite happy to see that you've…" she paused for a moment while the red fox approached me and I tossed it a snack. It caught it in one swift motion - just like Cheddar had done in his younger days. Recently though, Cheddar didn't seem to have the same energy or reflexes he used to, and just ate things once they hit the floor. It was just a sign he was getting on in years…

…I shook my head. I had to believe that I could get back home before Cheddar passed away!

"...succeeded, but it is rather obvious you succeeded in spite of what I did not because of it," Lauren said. "And I wanted to make sure there were no hard feeling between us."

Oh - I then realized what Lauren was here for now. I had kind of led her on the fact that I might be mad at her before - but then the siege and all had happened, and now that things had settled down, she seemed to think that it was better to speak to me rather than it coming to bite her in the future.

"Lauren, I understand why you had to do it," I told her. "And I think you made the right choice in your position, for what it's worth."

Sure, back on Earth, a boss who behaved the way Lauren did would be sued into oblivion - but we were not back on Earth. And hey, things on Earth hadn't always been this way, had they?

If anything, my reasoning back then during the meeting seemed rather immature given the severity of the siege that had followed and I was rather ashamed of how I had behaved.

There was no way for Lauren to have known in advance that I'd become a Master Liberomancer so soon - or that I would've gained such a fearsome reputation in the future. "What did bother me was that you had sent Mark to explain it all, instead of telling me yourself. Or even giving me a simple farewell yourself."

It was this fact that personally stung me the most. That she hadn't even bothered to look me in the eye before she kicked me out.

"Ah, yes, that…" she was at a loss for words - and I knew the truth of the matter was that she wanted to say 'it was not worth my time.'

And when it happened, it was true, it was not worth her time; as most other Rank Three Liberomancers would also feel, to explain themselves to a low-level employee.

My status as a foreigner, and not being a lizardman at the time when there was quite a bit of friction between the two species, meant there was little I could do to protest such a thing. Of course, she couldn't very well say that now, could she?

Again, I did not appreciate the action, but I got why it was done. "Regardless, let's forget about all of that. I'm not going to spend time here in Arconia for much longer as it is - I'm leaving the city, and I'd rather we not end this time on bitter terms. I had been planning to sort of throw a party with my other coworkers - even at the same restaurant we had been to once - I think you know the one. I had told Rose about it, but she had never gotten back to me. Why don't you and the rest of the shop's employees join me for a party before I leave?"

It was my way of saying that there were no hard feelings. And it was true, I was leaving, and I didn't see the point in prolonging this spat between the two of us for no reason.

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"That would… I think that would be a fine idea," she said with a weak smile. "Ah, how about next week?"

I wasn't really doing anything nowadays other than hoping a good grimoire might show up, making preparations to leave, and working on my own Rank Three grimoires, so any time was basically fine with me.

"Fine with me," I said.

"And… just as a mark of appreciation for what you've done…" she said, as she reached into a bag she had brought along and handed me a grimoire - Rank Two no less. "…I had heard through the grapevine you were collecting grimoires related to summoning. This is a Rank Two grimoire that gives [Summoning Extender - Rank Two]. It increases the duration that summons can be active by two hours, in addition to the one hour provided by [Summoning Extender- Rank One], though you have to have the Rank One version before you can use this."

I opened up a page - it was written in a language I hadn't seen before. "Where did you get this?"

"From the Book Fair six years ago - I had wanted to sell it or use it at a later time, but I'm not a dedicated summoner, and I ended up forgetting about it until now. You won't find a copy of that in all of Chipker though, I wager, and it should be helpful to you," she said.

It was indeed quite helpful - with this a Rank One summon could exist for six hours, a Rank Two for nine hours, and a Rank Three for twelve hours.

Much of the headache regarding using my summons was the fact that I had to be careful when their time ran out - and this gave them a lot more time to exist in this world.

"How much for this?"

"Oh, don't worry about the price."

"I… can't really accept something like this for free," I said to her. I hadn't asked for anything and just offered to throw a party to bury the hatchet because I also sort of felt guilty letting a personal issue fester instead of just coming clean during a time the entire city was in danger. "You're already doing me a favor by selling it to me and not someone else…" There was also the matter that I didn't want to feel like I owed Lauren a favor that she might try and cash in on somewhere later down the line - I was leaving Arconia, but that wouldn't be for a few weeks at least, and I didn't want to gain the reputation of someone who had bilked a favor.

By offering to pay at least a nominal price for the grimoire, it was easier to justify later if I didn't want to go along with something she was suggesting.

Reputation was everything after all - that was why she was doing all of this in the first place, but it also cut both ways. I had gained quite a bit of a noble reputation from my actions - but conversely that made it all the easier to ruin it as well. The bigger they are, the harder they fall - as they say. And I didn't want to have people think I was using my newfound reputation to extort favors from other people.

I found myself in the strange position of having to haggle the price upwards rather than downward, though we did finally come to an agreement.

I took the grimoire and wished her a good day as she left, after which I sighed and sank into the sofa.

The red fox, noticing my mood, jumped into my lap and let out a happy yelp.

"Sure, sure," I said while rubbing it behind the ears.

The party took place the next week, at the same restaurant as before - we even sat down at the same table, though two new guests joined this time around.

One was a red-scaled lizardman who had recently joined the shop, and the other was Lauren.

This didn't make up for the fact that there were four people missing who had originally been here - they were not dead, thankfully, but had either moved on from her shop or were simply unable to attend.

Looking back on how it went, I kind of thought it was a bit of a let down.

I had wanted the celebration to sort of be a way for us to have one last good time together before I left, but… things just weren't the way they were before.

There was always an air of awkwardness hanging above us throughout the whole time.

For one, Lauren was with us this time - and as with most company parties, people couldn't really act the way they wanted to with their boss around.

I could tell they were all intimidated by me to some extent - either because of the fame I'd gotten from the recent siege, or because I was a Master Liberomancer. I wouldn't have minded if they had just treated me like any other coworker like they had before, but they didn't seem to be able to do so. Even Rose seemed distant and quiet, only giving the bare minimum of formal small talk and nothing else unless I directly asked her a question.

Not even Lauren treated me like just another guy - so I guess it was too much to expect that of everyone else.

The only one who behaved even remotely like they had before was Mark, surprisingly enough.

I even tried ordering some wine to see if the alcohol might loosen some lips, but everyone barely drank any.

I couldn't say that the whole thing had been a total failure - but it felt so stiff and formal, and lifeless. Like an actual office party - which this technically was, but that hadn't been the vibe last time.

The vision I'd had of us laughing and cheering together, putting all our troubles behind us, was nothing but a fading dream it turns out.

Still, I hoped it had done what I had wanted it to - and that was to go some way to smoothing things over between all of us.

And although I had initially been disappointed with what had happened; I got a pleasant surprise regarding the party two days after it was over that brightened my spirits.

"What happened?" I asked the red fox I'd summoned. It had suddenly woken up from taking a nap on my bed (thankfully it did not wet itself like Cheddar occasionally had recently) and started glaring out the window. "What's out the - oh?"

There was an odd bird that was sort of like a pelican - there was another name for it but that was in the lizardmen language and so I had trouble remembering that; and just thought of it as a pelican. Its feathers were more brightly colored, and its wingspan slightly smaller, but the resemblance to a pelican was still quite apparent.

Where had I seen this one before? It looked familiar, but why had it come near my window? It was then that I saw the small packet attached to its leg.

Right!

This was Rose's summon!